LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Churchill Downs is a place built on pedigree. On paper. On past performance. But every so often, a longshot breaks through the pack, and everybody who doubted is left checking their tickets in the dust.
Mark Stoops is trying to be that longshot again.
He stood Monday in a room full of Kentucky fans, beneath the Twin Spires, and sounded a familiar tone, one that predates NIL deals and portal churn. He talked about toughness, togetherness, and maybe most of all, about belief.
"What I love most about this team is the team," Stoops said. "The strength of our team is going to be the team."
It was classic coach speak. But also, maybe, the only kind of speech left for a coach coming off a 4-8 season, who just watched half his roster walk out the door, and who now leads a team with more new faces than returning ones.
This wasn't Stoops' usual preseason press conference, where coach and quarterback sit at the front of the room and project a quiet confidence. This was the 2025 Wildcat Kickoff Luncheon at Churchill Downs, the heart of Big Blue Nation's Louisville base, a place where Stoops' previous wins still carry weight, but not enough to outweigh the questions that followed last year's slide.
He answered them not with promises, but with posture. He didn't hype a quarterback, though he spoke glowingly of Zach Calzada's experience and Cutter Boley's potential. He didn't boast about skill guys. He barely mentioned scheme.
He talked about the offensive line. He talked about culture. He talked about board games and bonding and how much effort he and his staff have put into making 50 new players feel like one unified team.
That kind of talk doesn't move the betting lines in Vegas. But it does signal a return to what built Stoops' program in the first place — the gritty, trench-first, chip-on-the-shoulder mentality that once helped Kentucky win 10 games in a season and earn six straight bowl berths.
The problem is, all that feels a lot farther away now than it used to.
A race against the past
Churchill Downs wasn't just a picturesque setting for Monday's remarks. It was an appropriate one. Because Stoops knows exactly what it means to have success, then hear people wonder aloud whether the best days are behind you.
From 2016 through 2023, Stoops won 61 games. Overall, he's won more than anyone at Kentucky, even Bear Bryant. He helped get Kroger Field renovated, saw new practice facilities go up, and secured the kind of job security rare for an SEC coach.
But in the SEC, sentiment is fleeting. Last season — his worst since 2013 — stripped away all assumptions. The offense was broken. The defense wore down. The fan base started checking out. And Stoops, who had once been the guy with answers, suddenly looked like he was running out of them.
So what did he do?
He pressed the reset button. Hard.
More than 50 new players. Changes in strength and conditioning. Renewed investment in team building. Continuity in the coaching staff. A two-quarterback competition that seems to be bringing out the best in both.
"I've made a commitment to the team this year that no matter what the situation it's kind of all gas, no brakes," Stoops said, likely unaware of how often that phrase is applied to a rival school's basketball coach whose office was just a mile or so down the road. "I like the way they play. I like the way they care about each other."
It's not flashy. But Kentucky hasn't thrived on flash. It's thrived when the Wildcats have leaned on the run, punished opponents in the trenches, shortened games and out-toughed teams that out-talented them.
Stoops believes this group can get back to that.
Whether they can — and how quickly — will determine if his words at Churchill Downs sound more like a bet worth making, or just a coach playing with house money.
Something to prove
In some ways, Stoops has more to prove now than he did in Year 1. Back then, there was no track record. No expectations. Just a hungry coach and a long runway.
Now he's the SEC's longest-tenured head coach. The wins are part of the résumé. But so are the disappointments and missed chances, the November slides and the fact that Kentucky has finished the season ranked only three times in his 11 years.
The horses break from the gate in less than two weeks. Toledo is first. The SEC gauntlet comes quickly after. And like a trainer hoping to coax one more big run out of a proven horse, Stoops has to hope that the chemistry he's built and the roster he's rebuilt are enough to make believers again.
Everybody else can place their bets.
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